2. Methods
2.1. Subjects
Twenty-three subjects diagnosed with migraine, 11 with (MA; 26 ± 9 years; 8 female) and 12 without aura (MwoA, 24 ± 6 years; 11 female), were compared to eleven healthy volunteers (HV; 22 ± 2 years; 9 female) who had no family and personal history of migraine. Patients and healthy volunteers were recruited via advertisements on the university website and local newspaper between July 2012 and September 2013. Inclusion criteria for migraine patients were: (i) migraine diagnosis according to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-II) criteria [17] by a physician; and (ii) no use of prophylactic medications within six months prior to study initiation. For control subjects, inclusion criteria were: not presenting a headache crisis in the last 12 months assessed according to IHCD-II criteria. All participants were ages ranged from 18 to 50 years old and were not taking any drugs that could influence cortical excitability or other regular medication. Subjects who had any contraindication to TMS [18] were excluded. The same safety criteria were applied for tDCS (experiment 2).
Experiments were conducted under a protocol approved by local Research Ethics Committee and were performed according to the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave their written informed consent prior to the experiment.